Dear fellow friends and photographers

[vvizard]

I just want to say thank you for your company over the last year. I've just started packing up my "gear" for a 2000 kilometer trip toward the north of the country, and my military-service, starting tomorrow. This forum is great, but so is the north of Norway supposed to be (for photography at least). At least I'm finally done with my job at the local grocery-store, and quite frankly, I think I'm looking forward to this. Don't know how good access I will have on such things as internet-connections up there, so I post my "good bye for now" message tonight. Will post some pictures of the nature up there, and me in my uniform as soon as I get the chance ;)

Love you all

[Tom W]

Hey VVizard - best of luck to you. Norway's military is going to get the services of a fine man.

I'm looking forward to seeing some of those images.

Take care,

[eric1]

the frozen north should mae for some great pics. take a BIG coat! :lol:

[Mthorpe_Davies]

If you're lucky you might end up in Kosovo like my brother in law, the pay is really good with all the danger money and you get to buy all the toys you could ever hope to get duty free. A good opportunity to get more camera gear.

[defordphoto]

Wow! You can sure deliver the Cold-Test on the cameras, that's for sure. We'll miss ya here, but we know that even way up there, there is Internet access and we know you'll pop in from time to time.

You always have friends here.

[vvizard]

I'm hoping to get to Kosovo or Afghanistan next year (the two countries where Norway got troups now). Two friends of mine just returned from Kosovo now. Yeah, the pay is nice, and if you stay for 12 months (instead of 8) you only pay 10% tax of what you earn, instead of my usual 36%. If you then manage not to spend too much money on hookers and alcohol (as I suspect many of doing), there should be _PLENTY_ for camera-gear, and still _PLENTY_ left over :)

[Belmondo]

vvizard:

We're all going to sleep a lot better for the next year knowing that you're there doing your thing for Norway, one of the 26 NATO nations.

Your time in the military will be one of the fonder memories in your later years. Take care, enjoy it, and please stay in touch however you can. We'll want to track your 'career.'

Tom

[vvizard]

Sure will pop in. I'm well prepared. Cell-phone with bluetooth and GPRS-subscription (Always-on internet-connection through cellphone, where you're only charged for the amount of MB/s transfered instead of time connected), and Laptop with bluetooth. So my laptop is internet-capable wherever there is cellphone-coverage ;) But it's expensive to use for things as webbrowsing. Works great for IM/Email though :)

[Ballen Photo]

vvizard, Stay safe and stay in touch. I for one will be looking forward to your posts from "Up North". Take care.
.......Bruce

[PhotosGuy]

Good luck, & keep the socks dry! :lol:

[JABACo]

You must be a good guy based on what the others are saying. Godspeed and Good luck.

[cmM]

Enjoy your military stage. I hope you'll have a good time!
Take photos while over there, and take care of your gear, and even more importantly, take care of yourself.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Take Care VVizard.. and TAKE PHOTOS! :mrgreen:

[psk4363]

Good luck Wizard, take care and come back to the fold at the earliest opportunity.

Cheers,
Barry :D

[Cadwell]

Hey vvizard, good luck and keep your head down. Don't be a stranger to us when you get a chance to go on-line.

[RichardtheSane]

Good luck! Be an experience you'll never forget!

I think it would be great to see a collection of say 52 photo's covering your year... what do you think?

[jalafer]

Sure will pop in. I'm well prepared. Cell-phone with bluetooth and GPRS-subscription (Always-on internet-connection through cellphone, where you're only charged for the amount of MB/s transfered instead of time connected), and Laptop with bluetooth. So my laptop is internet-capable wherever there is cellphone-coverage ;) But it's expensive to use for things as webbrowsing. Works great for IM/Email though :)

Vvizard, I'm now connected trough the mobile phone. A nice trick to reduce the total expenses is if you go to internet options and you choose not downloading the images. This will reduce very much the MB transferred and so your bill. If you want to see one particular image you can do it picking on it.

[RbnDave]

Good Luck, and stay safe. I always enjoyed your posts. Be sure to check in from time to time. Don't stop taking photos!

[daaaveman]

Best of luck Viz. We'll be thinking of you.

[sGu]

good luck, mate! we'll be here wish you all the best and waiting for your come back with tons of brilliant photos and peace, keep us posted! :D

[Cadenza]

Help us find Osama, will you? Bush can't do it. :-)

Good to hear that the pay is good for
Norwegian soldiers, and that you're
being supplied with state-of-the-art
equipment.

That's not the case for U.S. soldiers, only
Bush/Cheney's defense contractor friends
are actually getting rich from the massive
amounts of taxpayers monies going into
defense. The U.S. soldiers, who are losing
their lives in battle, are getting paid $15K
a year -- i.e, no MkII for them!

Best of luck!

[Pekka]

All the best to you and your job at new location! Scandinavia does have quite good internet connections so relocation is no excuse for not writing us from time to time :) Why not make a photo diary of the experience?